Using digital health solutions to accelerate COVID-19 response and vaccine rollout with DICE
As the pandemic continues to rage, public health officials are combating third or fourth waves of COVID-19 even as they are beginning to vaccinate their populations. We have seen countries around the globe, such as the United States, struggle to rollout the vaccine quickly, efficiently, and equitably amid the many demands that COVID-19 has placed on public health systems. These challenges are no different for low-to middle-income countries (LMICs), where public health systems are already stressed.
To address these challenges in LMICs, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) formed DICE, a Digital Health Center of Excellence, to provide coordinated technical assistance to support sustainable and scalable deployment of carefully chosen digital health solutions that support COVID-19 pandemic response. Requests for assistance must come from country governments and the work will be country-led. Country governments will be able to request technical assistance directly through DICE’s website and all partners will have visibility over country requests via a knowledge management portal. Initially, DICE will focus on digital health interventions that address priorities for COVID-19 response. However, DICE will also support the WHO’s global strategy on digital health and aim to provide overall strengthening of digital health systems.
DICE is co-hosted by UNICEF and the WHO through a virtual secretariat and has the support of a consortium of partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), GIZ, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the European Commission, The Global Fund, The Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Gavi Alliance, USAID, and the World Bank.
DICE’s approach is responsive to government needs and focuses on mature digital health tools, or “global goods.” As the digital health community learned during the Ebola crisis, coordination across donors and implementers during an emergency is paramount. During health crises, digital tools can bolster dating sharing, cohesive planning, and responsiveness. However, this requires coordinated digital health systems that are interoperable and scalable. Bespoke tools piloted in limited locations across a country usually cannot share data in a way that allows public health officials to make informed decisions. Governments need systems that can capture data across the country and provide health workers and patients with reliable information to make care decisions.
Digital Square is serving as a technical partner to DICE, supporting ministries of health (MOHs) and working with global goods partners to adapt software tools for COVID-19 vaccine rollout. This includes supporting strong coordination across donors, global goods partners, and government partners to ensure use of appropriate technologies, which should further strengthen digital health systems at the country level. We will also work with the global goods community to find ways in which the community can increase its support of DICE. As needs differ from one country to the next over time, Digital Square’s work with DICE will evolve.
As more governments look to digital health solutions to support their vaccine rollouts and their COVID-19 response more generally, it is vital that investments are coordinated to support these types of mature digital health systems. This pragmatic, forward-looking approach has the potential to be transformative for MOHs. That is why Digital Square is proud to serve as a DICE technical partner.
Digital Square will support DICE through a variety of mechanisms, including:
Supporting partnerships and engagement.
Secondments of staff to DICE or regional offices.
Helping to develop national digital health strategies.
Creating country-level landscapes of digital tools for frontline health workers.
Engaging the global goods community.
We are also developing guidance to complement the Digital implementation investment guide (DIIG) that will serve as a “how to” manual for partners and country governments to design and deploy digital solutions. Digital Square will engage global goods partners to modify and optimize software products that are relevant for pandemic response and vaccine delivery—driving toward interoperability, standardization, and vaccine-specific functionalities as country governments make technical assistance requests through DICE. This will help ensure that the software products that MOHs select can be adapted and used appropriately at the country level.
For more information, visit DICE’s website: https://www.digitalhealthcoe.org